The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) is advising pork producers and veterinarians that a new coronavirus has been detected in pig fecal samples from 4 different swine farms in Ohio by Dr Yan Zhang, a virologist from ODA's Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL). The virus cannot spread to humans or other species and poses no risk to food safety.

The farms from which the samples were taken experienced outbreaks of a diarrheal disease in sows and piglets in January and early February of 2014. The clinical signs of the disease were similar to that of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE), which are both caused by coronaviruses. Electron microscopy of feal samples from the 4 farms showed the presence of coronavirus-like viral particles. In one of the 4 farms, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for TGE viruses and PED viruses currently circulating in the US were negative, but all 10 samples were positive for a new virus. PED and the new virus were detected in fecal samples from the other 3 farms.

Sequence analysis of the new coronavirus shows that it is a deltacoronavirus, distinct from PED and TGE viruses